[SOLVED] The "best" GPU for mainly older games?

[yaspresents]

Hey,

as the title suggests, I'm currently looking for a new graphics card after I finally giving up with my Sapphire RX 5700. The card had abhorrent performance in DX9 games and to be honest only benchmarked well, that's about it. Luckily it sold instantly

The criteria is that the card would run older and newer releases flawlessly, I'm tired of constantly having to troubleshoot something and having to hope a new driver would fix this and that, which clearly does not happen with AMD.

I've been observing the (Gigabyte) GTX 1660 Super & The RTX 2060. They'd provide me with solid performance when occasionally playing more demanding games too. But I'm not certain if there's any differences with the 1660S and the RTX cards technologies regarding their performance with older games (DX9 etc)?

The other option would be the RX 580/590, due to them being so cheap (I know 2016 tech). But after an extensive online search, I wasn't able to form a clear picture of how they handle older titles, but I certainly know that AMD's drivers aren't helping the cause.

What would you suggest? The 1660S, RTX 2060 or the RX 500's? The GPU would be paired with a Ryzen 5 3600. I'm never ever touching the 5000's again so 5600XT's and so on are not valid options.

Personal experiences and each value-providing insight are massively welcome

Thanks a lot in advance regarding any possible answers.

 

[Darkbreeze]

My RTX 2060 plays DX9 games just fine. IMO the AMD cards "have" and have "always had" driver issues, and the root source of much of that is Raja Koduri, who was the engineer in charge of development for the Navi and several previous architectures. He is gone now, to Intel (Yeah, so expect similar problems whenever THEIR cards come out) so hopefully future AMD cards won't have similar difficulties but in the meantime, the driver support from Nvidia currently and for a few years now, is simply better.

The problems aren't limited to the 5000 series, so going with an older AMD card isn't going to fix anything. The fact is that for many older game titles you simply HAVE to use an older driver, and on Windows 10, older drivers almost ALWAYS mean problems. Especially shortly after one of the spring or fall updates but often, period. There are a LOT of older hardware drivers that worked fine for various versions of Windows 10, that don't work now, or even from one build version of 10 to the next. Often, hardware manufacturers have to release new drivers JUST to get the hardware to work correctly again with Windows 10 after a new release.

Unfortunately that's the way it's going to be because Windows 7 is dead, Windows 8.1 will be dead before you know it and most hardware manufacturers are not releasing drivers for those deprecated operating systems anymore anyhow. Many haven't for the last few years.

So, as the saying goes, it is what it is and some of your troubles are probably not even related to your card being an AMD product.

Dismissing all of that, because it doesn't matter anymore since the card is gone anyhow, what card from the Nvidia side of things to look at depends largely on what resolution you are gaming at and what CPU you are running, and I don't see any mention of those two things despite the fact that they are probably the primary considerations in choosing a graphics card.

 

[yaspresents]

My RTX 2060 plays DX9 games just fine. IMO the AMD cards "have" and have "always had" driver issues, and the root source of much of that is Raja Koduri, who was the engineer in charge of development for the Navi and several previous architectures. He is gone now, to Intel (Yeah, so expect similar problems whenever THEIR cards come out) so hopefully future AMD cards won't have similar difficulties but in the meantime, the driver support from Nvidia currently and for a few years now, is simply better.

The problems aren't limited to the 5000 series, so going with an older AMD card isn't going to fix anything. The fact is that for many older game titles you simply HAVE to use an older driver, and on Windows 10, older drivers almost ALWAYS mean problems. Especially shortly after one of the spring or fall updates but often, period. There are a LOT of older hardware drivers that worked fine for various versions of Windows 10, that don't work now, or even from one build version of 10 to the next. Often, hardware manufacturers have to release new drivers JUST to get the hardware to work correctly again with Windows 10 after a new release.

Unfortunately that's the way it's going to be because Windows 7 is dead, Windows 8.1 will be dead before you know it and most hardware manufacturers are not releasing drivers for those deprecated operating systems anymore anyhow. Many haven't for the last few years.

So, as the saying goes, it is what it is and some of your troubles are probably not even related to your card being an AMD product.

Dismissing all of that, because it doesn't matter anymore since the card is gone anyhow, what card from the Nvidia side of things to look at depends largely on what resolution you are gaming at and what CPU you are running, and I don't see any mention of those two things despite the fact that they are probably the primary considerations in choosing a graphics card.

Hey and firstly thanks a ton for your professional and extensive answer.

Yup, I'm aware of Win 10 and it's "conflicts" with DX9 etc. Nonetheless, various forums are stacked with people having issues with 5700's regarding older games. Only found a few of those that had to do with Nvidia's. To be honest my RX 5700 had something going on with every game.... And the issues weren't only limited to DX9 titles.

I mentioned my CPU (Ryzen 5 3600), In the post, but it was thrown in the middle of the text and not highlighted heh, sorry bout that.

I'm gaming @ 1080p resolution. Yet again refering to the RX 5700, I read a few posts where the older games ran better @ 1440p, but I don't have the resources to play with that resolution.

So it seems that it's a decider between the 1660S & the RTX 2060. Sadly I can't wait for the 3000's to come out, lowering the RTX 2000's prices.

I read some older posts and AMD's own posts about DX9 driver fixes in late 2018, but apparently that's not "valid" anymore?

Cheers yet again for taking your time to enlighten me.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the most that you can REASONABLY afford to throw at a new card, AND, probably MORE importantly, what is the EXACT model of your power supply?

Also, if there are specific online retailers you prefer to purchase from, in your country, please list them, as I am not familiar with exact hardware retailers in Finland, although, I AM a big fan of Nightwish, who are from Finland, so that's gotta count for something. LOL.

 

[FoxVoxDK]

There's nothing stopping you from acquiring older hardware and older software, then building an "off the net" machine and just getting what you need with a new machine, putting it onto a USB stick, then transferring that to your "retro PC".

I have an old 2006 PC with various discs and OS's. It's cheap to get a hold of older hardware, if a little uncertain at times.

 

[yaspresents]

What is the most that you can REASONABLY afford to throw at a new card, AND, probably MORE importantly, what is the EXACT model of your power supply?

Also, if there are specific online retailers you prefer to purchase from, in your country, please list them, as I am not familiar with exact hardware retailers in Finland, although, I AM a big fan of Nightwish, who are from Finland, so that's gotta count for something. LOL.

Hahah, that definitely counts as something, a great band indeed.

My PSU is a Super Flower Leadex lll 650W, same platform as EVGA Supernova G2/G3's as you probably know hehe.

Well, I don't play too much and I've only been playing older CoD's for the past god knows how long. Occasionally I do play something more demanding tho, so it'd be great to have some performance too whenever it's required.

I think around 350ish is the absolute limit. A really solid 1660S by Gigabyte is around 250€ at cheapest and on the other hand a good aftermarket RTX 2060 is around 350ish € at cheapest in here.

250€= $294
350€= $411

Yet again I really appreciate your insights.

 

[yaspresents]

There's nothing stopping you from acquiring older hardware and older software, then building an "off the net" machine and just getting what you need with a new machine, putting it onto a USB stick, then transferring that to your "retro PC".

I have an old 2006 PC with various discs and OS's. It's cheap to get a hold of older hardware, if a little uncertain at times.

Hey and thanks a lot for your answer man.

Can't lie this is something I've been thinking about here and there. DX9's were trouble-free with my GTX 660 & Ivy Bridge (Win7) build back in 2011-2012? Or so hah.

It'd just be so much more conventional for me to have everything "in the same package", which in the end means getting a massively overpowered graphics card when reflecting on what I mainly play, but that's just how it is going to be heh.

 

[Math Geek]

i have a 1650 super paired with a 3700x and play a lot of older games as well. it does great at 1080p for me. for instance i still enjoy grid and grid 2. i get over 200 fps on both. other racing games from last 10 years let's me play at high settings and easily maxes out my 144 hz screen. i don;t play any shooters but i assume the details of the cars and tracks at least compares to a fast pace shooter. my guess anyway. i also still play some older rts titles from 2010 or so. again high settings and maxes out my monitor for me as well.

a 1660 would obviously be stronger and allow for longer use before it needs to be upgraded.

basically get the best you can afford and can power with your psu. may be overkill today but it will last longer than a lower end card.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Leadex III is a really good power supply. No concerns there.

I'd look at something like this. It's performance is really not that far off from the RTX 2060 in a lot of games, if you look at 1080p Ultra or Very high quality reviews.

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